Two is better than One
by Wolka
Summary: It's funny how little tied them to their home really. But then again he had never had anyone who understood and she was past caring. I don't own Naruto.


**This is one of my favourite pairings and there are a couple of concepts here i'm toying with for a full fic, but this scene kinda struck me as something that could be stand alone seeing as it doesn't fit into what I think i'll do. Anyway enjoy and make of it what you will I guess.**

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She looked out over the village, forehead protector clasped in her hands. It seemed so peaceful and caring from the top of the Hokage monument, a complete antithesis to the grim reality of Konoha no Sato as she now knew it. Her eyes that were once upon a time, so full of life were now empty and hollow, the twin victims of countless shed tears.

"Inoichi Yamanaka is dead." She spoke the words in a near whisper and the wind that slowly flowed across a sky far too sunny for how she was feeling quickly threw them into the void that separated her from all of humanity. It didn't seem real and even now, days after the event she still struggled to comprehend what they meant. Her father, the great Shinobi who less than ten years ago had seemed more of a god than a man to her was dead. Another victim of the same politicking that had seen his former teammates have their own lives similarly cut short.

"Inoichi Yamanaka is dead." She spoke the words again, attempting to make them stick, but once again the wind stole them, a steadily increasing force to compete with her own slowly rising voice. A shrill cry erupted from her throat and filled the air, bestial in its intensity, but despite its fury it brought no attention to the eighteen year old who had made the noise. She fell back sobbing as tears began to fall from her eyes once again. She should have stopped crying by now, death was a part of her life after all, but all the same she couldn't help but weep for the loss of her father and what it represented.

Inoichi was the last, the last one to link her to the village. Her own team was long gone, a victim of a bounty hunter who had fought the Shodai of all people and managed to survive until the Hokage had unleashed the village Demon upon the man. Her thoughts drifted to the Yondaime, the current leader, arguably the most powerful Hokage ever. She could have gone to him she supposed or the leader of the opposition, Danzo. A trained Yamanaka was a powerful tool after all.

However the fact that she had no idea who aided the coup that had delivered the Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi into the hands of the rivals of not only her own but her dead best friend's families made her pause. And it wouldn't be long until they came for her too. The last link to the family that had ruled the Yamanaka since the great alliance was formed with the Nara and Akimichi during the clan wars. No amount of protection within the village could save her and she refused to live life like a caged animal, a monster just like…

"You alright miss… Ino?" Speak of the devil she thought, the phrase taking on a whole new meaning as she turned to survey the new arrival. He stood at six feet and with his blonde hair and tanned skin he could have passed as one of the Yondaime's family and indeed the boy looking at her was, but the whisker marred cheeks and the slitted eyes with their feral red gleam screamed otherwise.

Uzumaki Naruto, the boy who had the misfortune of being born into the family of the ruling Kage and then resonating with the mass of energy that the Sage of Six Paths had created known as Kyuubi. Those facts had led to the energy being bound within him, turning him into something more than human. A Demon some claimed, although her father, arguably the one person who had had the most contact with the boy before her had always stressed otherwise. There were others like him, she had even met one, Gaara the boy was called, the son of the former Kazekage and brother of the current, although she couldn't claim to know him like she knew Naruto.

"Hi Naruto," she began, tears forgotten momentarily as she looked at her one time playmate from back in the days prior to the Hokage isolating him. An action that Inoichi had protested against and had possibly played a part in his downfall, among other things she supposed. She struggled to think of something to say to the boy but in the end all she could offer up was a weak, "how'd you find me?"

"The Hokage was kind enough to offer me a cave up here, I got curious about who was up here, not many people come here, because well, you know." He finished, his voice quietening as he gestured to himself, his hand absently rubbing the back of his head in such a way as to confirm that no matter what he was now, he had been human once upon a time. In fact it was so distracting that Ino almost missed the underlying bitterness of his words. Then again bitter was a good word to describe him now that she thought about it. And as much as she tried not to, she was beginning to see the benefits of replicating him.

"Oh." Ino said, not sure what to say to something like that. A tense silence then developed, Ino shifted uncomfortably as it surrounded her before she simply had to respond.

"Naruto?"

"Yes?" Red eyes bored into her as she felt his gaze analysing her, an unsettling feeling that it had taken her years to acclimatise to.

"Sit with me." He didn't reply, but slowly walked towards her, his standard issue black pants rustling as he slid to the ground and warping a bare arm around her, even as she leant into his awkward one sided embrace.

"I'm sorry about your father, he was a good friend." Naruto said, the word sliding uneasily off his tongue.

"Thanks, he always liked you, said you deserved better." She replied easily, her sorrows forgotten as contact with the boy bought the feelings from their pre Genin days to the fore.

"So when do you leave?" He asked without preamble.

"Leave?" she asked, confusion suffusing her singular reply.

"I can tell y'know? It's a talent I guess, I can read emotions because of what I am." He replied calmly.

"Oh." Once again she couldn't think of a reply.

"So when do we leave?"

"We?" She asked the word more curious than anything else, and not denying what he was suggesting she was about to do.

"Sure, you and Inoichi are the only things that really tie me here," he snorted, "It sure as hell ain't some sort of familial bond with the Yondaime."

"But he's…"

"My father? Yeah but he doesn't understand, there was a time he tried, but… it's hard you know, and it was made all the more so because he's not used to things he doesn't understand, he's like the Uchiha you lusted over in that regard, they're both Geniuses I guess. I can't look at him as a father no matter how much he wanted me too, the energy changes us that's why, I think. I have a family, but it isn't him or my mother." He spoke the words easily, but she picked up on the ghost of pain that was hidden there.

It took her a moment to puzzle out what he meant but when she did she gasped.

"The other Jinchūriki you mean?" taking note of his stiff nod.

"Yeah, we're connected you see, sets us apart I guess, but like I said you want to come meet them? Two's better than one." He added when she hesitated.

She struggled with the decision for a moment, but in truth her mind had been made up from the moment she arrived here, she was leaving no matter what and he was right, two is better than one. Wordlessly she handed her forehead protector to the man beside her and watched as his red chakra condensed into a bestial claw around his hand and scoured a long line down the engraved metal. She felt free as she watched it occur, and she relished the freedom that she finally felt like she had regained.

"What about you?"

He smiled and showed her his right arm, proudly displaying his own scarred headband, proof that like her his mind had already been made up long ago.

He stood with animal like grace and offered her a hand up. She allowed him to pull her up and when she stood, taking in one last view of her beautiful and insidious village for the last time she didn't let go of his calloused hand.

Wordlessly they turned and began to make their way down the mountain. There was something deeply symbolic about it she reflected as they quietly left the village with no fanfare, she couldn't recognise its intricacies but it was there. She turned and smiled at Naruto, he may have lost his humanity long ago, but he was hers, like her father had been and she would keep him for eternity if she could because of that simple fact.

**I'm working on the next chapter of Hyoton but it's slow going so don't expect anything for a while. Tell me what you think of this too, i'm interested to see what people think.**


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